Confessions on the 7:45
Summary
âIntricate and nuanced - on par with the best top-flight psychological suspense.â (LA Times) International Best Seller From master of suspense Lisa Unger comes a riveting thriller about a chance encounter that unravels a stunning web of lies. Selena Murphy is commuting home on the train when she strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat. The woman introduces herself as Martha and soon confesses that sheâs been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selenaâs station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again. Then the nanny disappears. As Selena is pulled into the mystery of what happened, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, she begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what sheâll discover.... Looking for more gripping suspense? Check out Last Girl Ghosted, also from New York Times best-selling thriller writer Lisa Unger.Â
©2020 Lisa Unger (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
In the Blood
Summary
In the Blood is the Lisa Unger novel we've all been waiting for - and a return to the dark psychological suspense that made Beautiful Lies a bestseller around the world. Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she canât quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers? When Lanaâs closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying waysâto friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her whereabouts the night Beck disappeared doesnât jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: Someone else knows about Lanaâs lies. And heâs dying to tell. Lisa Unger's writing has been hailed as âsensationalâ (Publishers Weekly) and âsophisticatedâ (New York Daily News), with âgripping narrative and evocative, muscular proseâ (Associated Press). Masterfully suspenseful, finely crafted, and written with a no-holds-barred raw power, In the Blood is Unger at her best.
©2014 Lisa Unger (P)2014 Simon & Schuster
Beautiful Lies
Summary
If Ridley Jones had slept 10 minutes later or had taken the subway instead of waiting for a cab, she would still be living the beautiful lie she used to call her life. She would still be the privileged daughter of a doting father and a loving mother. Her life would still be perfect - with only the tiny cracks of an angry junkie for a brother and a charming drunk with shady underworld connections for an uncle to mar the otherwise flawless whole.  But that's not what happened. Instead, those inconsequential decisions lead her to perform a good deed that puts her in the right place at the right time to unleash a chain of events that brings a mysterious package to her door - a package which informs her that her entire world is a lie. Suddenly forced to question everything she knows about herself and her family, Ridley wanders into dark territory she never knew existed, where everyone in her life seems like a stranger. She has no idea who's on her side and who has something to hide - even, and maybe especially, her new lover, Jake, who appears to have secrets of his own. Sexy and fast-paced, Beautiful Lies is a true literary thriller with one of the freshest voices and heroines to arrive in years. Lisa Unger takes us on a breathtaking ride in which every choice Ridley makes creates a whirlwind of consequences that are impossible to imagine....
©2006 Lisa Unger (P)2006 Books on Tape
Ink and Bone
Summary
In this explosive psychological thriller by New York Times best-selling author Lisa Unger, a young woman's mysterious gift forces her into the middle of a dangerous investigation of a little girl's disappearance. For as long as she can remember, 20-year-old Finley Montgomery has been able to see into the future. She dreams about events before they occur and sees beyond the physical world, unconsciously using her power to make supernatural things happen. But Finley can't control these powers - and there's only one person who can help. So Finley moves to The Hollows, a small town in upstate New York where her grandmother lives, a renowned seer who can finally teach Finley how to use her gift - a gift that is proving to be both a blessing and a curse, as Finley lands in the middle of a dangerous investigation involving a young girl who has been missing for 10 months, and the police have all but given up hope. With time running out, there's only so much Finley can do as The Hollows begins to reveal its true colors. As she digs deeper into the town and its endless layers, nothing is what it seems. But one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what.
©2016 Lisa Unger (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Stranger Inside
Summary
Named a best book of fall 2019 by People Magazine, Boston Globe, BookBub, PopSugar, CrimeReads, and more. âBrilliant.... A well-crafted psychological thriller.â (The New York Times Book Review) When former journalist Rain Winter was 12 years old, she narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friendâs house. The abductor was eventually found and sent to prison, but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice - and killed him in cold blood. Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, spending her days as a stay-at-home mom. But when another criminal who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case, forced to revisit memories sheâs worked hard to leave behind. Is there a vigilante at work? Who is the next target? Why canât Rain just let it go? Introducing one of the most compelling and original killers in crime fiction today, Lisa Unger takes listeners deep inside the minds of both perpetrator and victim, blurring the lines between right and wrong, crime and justice, and showing that sometimes even good people are drawn to do evil things. Don't miss Lisa Unger's newest thrilling and chilling novel, Last Girl Ghosted! Â
©2019 Lisa Unger (P)2019 HarperAudio
Let Her Be
Summary
A writerâs misguided suspicions ruined his life once before. This time he plans to prove heâs right in a New York Times bestselling authorâs haunting short story of what happens when seeing is not believing. Will, an aspiring novelist, canât stop parsing his ex-girlfriendâs popular social media accounts for clues that her ideal new rural life with the perfect man has a dark side. After all, nobody he knows has actually seen the blissful blogger in the flesh for nearly a year. When Will draws a wary friend into his âinvestigation,â the real question becomes whoâs truly in danger. Lisa Ungerâs Let Her Be is part of Hush, a collection of six stories, ranging from political mysteries to psychological thrillers, in which deception can be a matter of life and death. Each piece can be read or listened to in one truly chilling sitting.
©2020 Lisa Unger. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Under My Skin
Summary
Nominated for the 2019 Edgar Award, Hammett Prize, and Macavity Award PopSugarâs Best Mysteries & Thrillers to Read in Fall 2018 CrimeReads Best Book of 2018 Booklistâs Best New Book One of the Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2018 from CrimeReads One of Fall 2018âs Most Exciting New Mysteries & Thrillers by Bookish Bookbubâs One of the Biggest, Most Anticipated Thrillers of the Season, Fall 2018 Best Mystery Book Pick, and Editorsâ Pick Library Journal 2018 Killer Thriller From New York Times best-selling author and master of suspense Lisa Unger comes an addictive psychological thriller about a woman on the hunt for her husbandâs killer What if the nightmares are actually memories? Itâs been a year since Poppyâs husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattanâs Riverside Park. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiraled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused wearing a tight red dress she didnât recognize. What happened to Poppy during those lost days? And more importantly, what happened to Jack? The case was never solved, and Poppy has finally begun to move on. But those lost days have never stopped haunting her. Poppy starts having nightmares and blackouts - there are periods of time she canât remember, and sheâs unable to tell the difference between what is real and what sheâs imagining. When she begins to sense that someone is following her, Poppy is plunged into a game of cat and mouse, determined to unravel the mystery around her husbandâs death. But can she handle the truth about what really happened?
©2018 Lisa Unger (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.
Angel Fire
Summary
The childhood murder of Lydia Strongâs mother has turned her into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. The reclusive, best-selling true-crime writer and investigative consultant has made a life out of chasing monsters. And her powerful intuitions rarely fail her. When three adults - loners, drifters - go missing, no one seems to notice except for Lydia. Enlisting the help of her friend, former FBI agent Jeffrey Mark, Lydia starts an investigation of her own. But when someone raises the stakes and goes after Lydia - just as 15 years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her motherâs killer - the real hunt begins.
©2012 Lisa Unger (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Twice
Summary
Acclaimed artist Julian Ross has just been found standing over her husbandâs bloody corpse in their New York City apartment. Julian claims that she slept peacefully beside him while he was violently stabbed in their bed. But police are skeptical, especially since Julianâs first husband was killed and mutilated in exactly the same way. Julian turns to the tough-as-nails crime writer Lydia Strong, who plunges into the case with her signature grit and the help of her partner, P.I. Jeffrey Mark. Meanwhile, Lydia learns that Jed McIntyre, the serial killer who murdered her mother, is on the loose in New York. McIntyre is out for Lydiaâs blood, and his presence forces her to confront the evils of her past while solving her toughest murder case yet.
©2012 Lisa Unger (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Sleep Tight Motel
Summary
A woman on the run finds refuge in a motel at the edge of the woods, with plenty of vacancies. Check in for the night with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger. Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. Heâll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve wonât get a good nightâs rest until she finds out. Lisa Ungerâs The Sleep Tight Motel is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.
©2018 Lisa Unger (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Darkness Gathers: Lydia Strong, Book 2
Summary
Fresh from a tour promoting her last book, reclusive true-crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn. Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigatorâs intuition ignites. She takes it on. But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone anxious enough to engineer the reappearance of one of Lydiaâs most dangerous adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatianaâs disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead.
©2003 Lisa Unger (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Smoke
Summary
In the final installment of her Lydia Strong series, best-selling author Lisa Unger, writing as Lisa Miscione, brings us her most shocking and emotionally wrenching case yet. An NYPD detective visits Lydia and her husband, P.I. Jeffrey Mark, to inform them that Lily, one of Lydiaâs former writing students, has been missing for more than two weeks. Before she disappeared, Lily had tried to get in touch with Lydia, seeking her help. Could this have had something to do with the death of Lilyâs brother, which Lily refused to accept as a suicide? If they want to discover the truth, Lydia and Jeffrey will have to follow the trail that Lily left behind, a trail of evidence that - like Lily herself - seems to disappear like smoke.
©2012 Lisa Unger (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Sliver of Truth
Summary
Ridley Jones is being careful about where she steps and trying to get on with her life when a seemingly mundane act - picking up a few envelopes of prints at a photo lab - puts her at the nexus of a global network of crime. A shadowy figure of a man appears in almost every picture sheâs taken in the last year, lurking just far enough away to make identification impossible. Now the FBI is at her door, some serious bad guys are following her every move, and the family she once loved and relied on is more distant than ever. The only thing Ridley knows for sure is that she has to get to the truth about herself and her past if sheâs ever going to find her way home. Charged with relentless intensity and kinetic action, playing out with unnerving suspense on the streets of New York and London, and seen through the terrified but determined eyes of a young woman whose body and heart are pushed to the point of shattering, Sliver of Truth is another triumph from the New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Lies.Â
©2007 Lisa Unger (P)2007 Books on Tape
Inherit the Dead
Summary
Twenty thrilling writers. One chilling mystery. Pericles "Perry" Christo is a P.I. with a past. A one-time NYPD homicide cop, Perry has been struggling since he lost his badge, and his marriage, in a notorious corruption scandal. So when wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla calls him one cold February night, he jumps at the chance to work what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case. Julia needs Perry to track down the whereabouts of her beautiful yet aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young heiress. But as Perry digs deeper, he discovers there's much more to the story of the lovely "Angel." Her father, her best friend, her boyfriend - they all have agendas of their own. This classic noir tale twists and turns down New York's mean streets and around Hampton's beaches and back roads, during a bitterly cold and gray winter - where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide. Told in the same "serial novel" format that made 2011's No Rest for the Dead such a commercial and critical success, Inherit the Dead is a collaboration among 20 of today's best-selling mystery and thriller authors each taking a chapter of the narrative and infusing it with their signature style. The editor, Jonathan Santlofer, has arranged to donate any royalties in excess of editor and contributor compensation to Safe Horizon, a leading provider of services to victims of violence and abuse, making this a worthy and winning accomplishment that showcases today's finest writers at their very best.
©2013 Lee Child, Lisa Unger, C.J. Box, Lawrence Block, Charlaine Harris, Jonathan Santlofer, and Mary Higgins Clark (P)2013 Simon & Schuster
Fragile
Summary
A thrilling novel from New York Times best-selling author Lisa Unger about the hunt for a missing girl and one communityâs intricate yet fragile bonds. â[A] nail-biting nuanced whodunit.â (People) Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. Itâs a place where neighbors keep an eye on one anotherâs kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high-school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollowsâs insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patientsâ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggieâs intuitive gift proves useful to the case - and also dangerous. Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charleneâs disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father. As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charleneâs disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret - one that could destroy everything she holds dear.
©2010 Lisa Unger (P)2010 Random House
Die for You
Summary
Isabel Raine thought she had everything - a successful career, a supportive family, and a happy marriage to the man she loved. Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, picks up his briefcase, kisses her good-bye, and simply vanishes. That day, all her calls to him go straight to voice mail; the messages she leaves at his office go unreturned, too. Panicking after finally receiving a call from his cell phone in which all she can hear is a man's terrified cry, Isabel calls the police. But they aren't interested. Men leave, they tell her. They leave all the time. Desperate to find her husband, Isabel races to his office. But instead of finding him, she finds herself in the middle of an FBI raid. Hours later, she awakens in the hospital with a severe concussion and a homicide detective by her bedside waiting to question her about Marcus Raine - the real Marcus Raine.
©2009 Lisa Unger (P)2009 Random House
Darkness, My Old Friend
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Lies and Fragile returns to The Hollows, delivering a thriller that explores matters of faith, memory, and sacrifice. After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. Heâs in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire. Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing. Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce. Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away - a predilection that might lead her to dark places. Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Ungerâs most compelling fiction to date.
©2011 Lisa Unger (P)2011 Random House Audio
Black Out
Summary
"When my mother named me Ophelia, she thought she was being literary. She didn't realize she was being tragic." On the surface, Annie Powers' life in a wealthy Floridian suburb is happy and idyllic. Her husband, Gray, loves her fiercely; together, they dote on their beautiful young daughter, Victory. But the bubble surrounding Annie is pricked when she senses that the demons of her past have resurfaced and, to her horror, are now creeping up on her. These are demons she can't fully recall because of a highly dissociative state that allowed her to forget the tragic and violent episodes of her earlier life as Ophelia March and to start over, under the loving and protective eye of Gray, as Annie Powers. Disturbing events - the appearance of a familiar dark figure on the beach, the mysterious murder of her psychologist - trigger strange and confusing memories for Annie, who realizes she has to quickly piece them together before her past comes to claim her future and her daughter.
©2008 Lisa Unger (P)2008 Books on Tape